ED54B:
Make It More Simple: The Up-Goer Five Giving-It-a-Try (aka Challenge)


Session ID#: 8250

Session Description:
We ask anyone studying the world and/or space to explain what they study using only the ten hundred most used words. This is a great chance to speak about important work as simply as possible—without losing its meaning.  (This paragraph written using the “Up-Goer Five Text Editor.”)

Inspired by the XKCD comic in which the author describes the Saturn V Rocket using only the thousand most common words in English (http://xkcd.com/1133/), we ask speakers to present very short (5-minute) scientific talks using only a limited vocabulary (as determined via the Up-Goer Five Text Editor: http://splasho.com/upgoer5). This is not intended flippantly, but as a fun, sincere exercise in distilling critical information to its essence, an invaluable skill in communicating to both scientific and public audiences. We hope that these talks will serve as inspiration and points of discussion for rendering technical and complex language into its most fundamental parts.

Primary Convener:  Peter L Weiss, American Geophysical Union, Washington, DC, United States
Conveners:  Olivia Ambrogio, American Geophysical Union, Washington, DC, United States and Mary Catherine Adams, American Geophysical Union, Washington, DC, United States
Chairs:  Mary Catherine Adams, American Geophysical Union, Washington, DC, United States and Elizabeth A Landau, American Geophysical Union, Washington, DC, United States
OSPA Liaison:  Olivia Ambrogio, American Geophysical Union, Washington, DC, United States

Cross-Listed:
  • PA - Public Affairs
  • SI - Societal Impacts and Policy Sciences
Index Terms:

Abstracts Submitted to this Session:

Eric A Davidson, University of Maryland Center (UMCES) for Environmental Science, Frostburg, MD, United States
Jennifer G Blank, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, United States
Emily Wolin, Northwestern University, Evanston, United States
Andre Michel Bieler, University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor, MI, United States
Kasey Aderhold, Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology, Seattle, WA, United States
Kelsey Winsor, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Environmental, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences, Lowell, MA, United States and Kate M Swanger, University of Massachusetts, Lowell, MA, United States
Thomas Heine, University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor, MI, United States
Martin Heesemann1, Monika S. Pelz2, Martin Scherwath1, Dwight Owens3, Maia Hoeberechts3 and Kate Moran2, (1)University of Victoria, Ocean Networks Canada, Victoria, BC, Canada, (2)Ocean Networks Canada, Victoria, BC, Canada, (3)Ocean Networks Canada, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada
Rolf Hut, Delft University of Technology, Water Management, Delft, Netherlands
Jessica L Ball, USGS Western Regional Offices Menlo Park, Menlo Park, CA, United States

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